This report is a response to congressional requests for the Congressional Research Service (CRS) to identify, synthesize, and explain the core components of the workforce skills gap discourse and, to the extent possible, explore and clarify evidence on the existence of skills gaps. The report acknowledges that the skills gap label is often applied…

The impending retirement of the baby boom cohort represents the first time in the history of the United States that such a large and well-educated group of workers will exit the labor force. This could imply skill shortages in the U.S. economy. We develop near-term labor force projections of the educational demands on the workforce and the supply…

This study used archival sources to examine the factors that encouraged for-profit business education to shift during the 1970s from small, certificate programs for bookkeepers and secretaries to large, multisite universities for mid-level managers. Using data from the Occupational Outlook Handbook, as well as trend data from the Bureau of Labor…

If a person is making a decision about education, training, or a career--or if he/she is helping someone else who is making such decisions--he/she needs to know how the labor market is expected to unfold in the future. How many jobs are likely to be available in the career a person wants? How much will they pay? What kind of training will the…

The impending retirement of the baby boom cohort could pose dramatic challenges for the U.S. labor force for at least two reasons. First, the boomers--adults born between 1946 and 1964--are large in number. Second, boomers are relatively well educated. In this report we develop and analyze occupational and labor force projections to the year 2018,…

The graying of the labor force, together with the recession of 2008-2010, has forced employers and prognosticators to take a hard look at workforce preparation, training, and planning. This employer research survey is one component of a larger project that explores the workforce, labor force projections, and employer views on training,…

The labor force is the number of people aged 16 or older who are either working or looking for work. It does not include active-duty military personnel or institutionalized people, such as prison inmates. Quantifying this total supply of labor is a way of determining how big the economy can get. Labor force participation rates vary significantly…

The authors analyze civilian occupations and employment data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau in 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000 with respect to 6 kinds of work (Holland's RIASEC [Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional] classification), employment, and gender. For the 1990 and 2000 censuses, kinds of work,…